Three former Orange County city officials are among half a dozen such officials in the state who are drawing excessive pensions from the State Public Employees' Retirement System, according to an audit prepared by the state controller's office.

Three former Orange County city officials are among half a dozen such officials in the state who are drawing excessive pensions from the State Public Employees' Retirement System, according to an audit prepared by the state controller's office.

A jury has found that the city of Huntington Beach provided adequate medical care for an epileptic who suffered a seizure while in custody on suspicion of driving under the influence of drugs. Bruce Usher, 32, of Westminster had claimed in his lawsuit that officers failed to follow jail policy when they kept him in a holding cell for 12 hours without the approval of a physician.

An administrator in the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles who may have secretly worked two full-time jobs--one with the court and another with the Huntington Beach city attorney's office--has resigned from his Orange County position and is the subject of a police investigation there. Huntington Beach City Administrator Paul Cook said Walter F. Burk, a 15-year city employee who had spent the last four or five years as an analyst in the 16-member city attorney's office, quit March 31 after being confronted with information that he was working dual day jobs.

It's sometimes called "pension spiking," but state Controller Gray Davis has another name for it: "legal larceny." The practice allows public employees approaching retirement to inflate their salaries with sick leave, vacation days, automobile allowances and other perks. That enlarges their pensions.

January 11, 1992 | RALPH FRAMMOLINO and JOHN PENNER, TIMES STAFF WRITERS

State auditors on Friday released the names of 16 retired Huntington Beach officials--including Councilman Earle Robitaille--who the auditors say are collecting pensions based on artificially inflated salaries.

Using an Orange County case to underscore the point, state Controller Gray Davis said Tuesday that he wants to impose civil and criminal penalties against public officials who artificially inflate their salaries to receive large pensions.

Reacting to state Controller Gray Davis' call to penalize public officials who artificially inflate their pay to get larger pensions, a citizens' group Wednesday called for an investigation of Davis' charges that retiring city employees had engaged in the practice here. At a news conference, Huntington Beach Tomorrow, which says it has 1,000 members, requested that the city undertake its own inquiry to curb the pension-inflating practice, which Davis has dubbed "salary spiking."

A former employee of the Huntington Beach city attorney's office is the subject of a police investigation into allegations that for six months he secretly worked two full-time jobs--one with Huntington Beach and another with the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. Huntington Beach City Administrator Paul Cook said Walter F. Burk, a 15-year city employee who had spent the past four or five years as an analyst in City Atty. Gail C.

Huntington Beach City Atty. Gail Hutton, criticized by city officials this week for poor management, has mailed thousands of letters to voters accusing the City Council of cutting her yearly budget because she has not "been a 'good girl' politically." The mailers, dated April 4 and signed by Hutton, arrived this week after the revelation that her $40,000-a-year financial analyst, Walter F. Burk, had secretly held a full-time job in U.S.